The Toughest Photo Assignment Yet!

Heritage Defense, a Texas-based organization dedicated to protecting the biblical family through legal assistance and public policy initiatives, is creating two life-sized posters to be used as part of their trade show booth backdrop display . . . and they have asked the photographers on Lenspiration to shoot the photos for them!

This is no easy task, so let’s get started learning how to shoot this latest assignment, Mother & Social Worker!

Step 1: Get the Details

If you haven’t already, click here to read all the details about the assignment over on the forum.

Step 2: Watch How I Shot the Assignment

Just like with just about everything else, it helps to watch someone else do what you’re attempting to do, right? Well, here’s how my photoshoot went:

Step 3: Learn From My Mistakes

Here are the two photos I took (in context of how the booth display will be set up):

And here is what I would do differently if I was going to shoot this assignment again. It’s amazing what things I notice now that I see the two photos up next to each other!

It’s obvious that the camera position and focal length was not the same on the outside photo as it was on the inside photo. I should have spent more time getting that set up before bringing in the subjects.

The subjects are different sizes. Cropping differently in post would probably be able to take care of this.

It doesn’t work to flip the photo . . . did you notice the door knob and hinges?

Use a door with a peephole instead of a window. It wasn’t an option this time, but with a window as large as the one I had to work with, the mother wouldn’t be so close.

I should have kept the diffusing pillow cases on my lights . . . the shadows are obvious and distracting, though I was able to soften them in Photoshop. If I was in a different location, I would have used a speedlite. Wooden ceilings, though, prohibited me being able to do so this time.

It’s a little thing, but I wish I had told the mother to hold the baby with her hand underneath the baby instead of around her.

I wish I had used a longer focal length than 35mm, to help stack the subjects and introduce a little more blur in the background of the outside photo.

Notice anything else that I probably should have done differently?

4. Make a plan

Determine how you’re going to shoot this assignment. Think through every single detail and make a plan for how you’re going to do it! Among a million other things, you’re the organizer, recruiter, outfit suggester, lighting expert and camera set up-er!

5. Go Shoot It!

While this is probably the toughest assignment we’ve had on over Lenspiration yet, it certainly has one of the greatest reward that we’ve had in a long time!

Take a look at the details at FEATURED: Mother & Social Worker, make the decision that you will shoot this assignment no matter what, and you’ll be well on your way to having yet another real-life photo assignment under your belt!